By John Kwoba NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Thursday cancelled three
international friendly rugby 15s matches against Namibia,
British Army and South Africa’s Loftus 2000 because of financial
constraints.

Kenya Rugby Union
CEO Sylvia Kamau confirmed that they are facing financial
challenges and will not be able to meet the 300,000 U.S. dollars
budget for the team’s preparations for the 2019 World Cup
repechage qualifying matches in Marseille, France, against
Germany, Canada and China’s Hong Kong.

However, the match
against Romania in Bucharest next month will go on.

“Namibia have
confirmed that the game is off while British Army and Loftus
2000 have failed to raise the team to travel to Nairobi of the
clash,” said Kamau.

“We still need to
have the best preparations for the team ahead of the repechage
and we will have two matches in Bucharest against Romania A and
another one in France.”

The repechage world
cup qualifier will be in Marseille from Nov. 11-23.

Kenya had been set
to play British Army on Oct. 17 followed by Africa champions
Namibia on Sunday (Oct. 21) and South African outfit Loftus 2000
on Oct. 28. Now all the three matches have been cancelled.

Kenya’s head coach
Ian Snook had expressed his desire to have more matches for the
team ahead of their trip to Marseille.

On Monday, the New
Zealand coach looked on without help as his team boycotted
training in demand of their unpaid three-month salaries and
allowances.

The Kenyan
government has promised Harambee Stars 500,000 dollars if they
beat Ghana, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia to qualify for the Africa
Nations Cup, yet nothing has been given to the rugby 15s
national team, who want to qualify for the 2019 World Cup in
Japan.

KRU presented a
budget of 600,000 dollars to the government, but it was cut down
to about 360,000 dollars and not a single cent has been
channeled to the team so far.

The Kenya rugby 15s
team starts its repechage campaign against Canada on Nov. 11
before meeting Hong Kong on Nov. 17 and finish it up with
Germany on Nov. 23.

The winner of the
round robin competition will secure the final ticket to compete
in the World Cup in Japan and will be entered in the same pool
that has New Zealand, South Africa, Italy and Namibia.